Program Schedule

Wednesday May 8th

2024 Great Salt Lake Issues Forum

Wednesday, May 8th Schedule Granite Ballroom

7:15 am – Registration and Continental Breakfast

Broadening the Geographic Focus From the Lake to the Watershed of the Lake

8:00 – Welcome

8:10 – Keynote: The Great Salt Lake Strategic Plan and The Way Forward

Brian Steed, Great Salt Lake Commissioner

8:35 – Turning the Tide: Legislative Perspectives and Solutions to Navigating Water Policy.  A Lakeside Chat with Speaker Mike Schultz and Rep. Casey Snider

9:00 – Great Salt Lake Strike Team Policy Summaries

Bill Anderegg, Wilkes Center for Climate Science and Policy, University of  Utah

Beth Neilson, Utah Water Research Laboratory, Utah State University

9:30 – Planning for Preservation: The Salty Saga: Ensuring a resilient water supply for Great Salt Lake and all water uses, including people and the environment throughout the watershed

Laura Vernon, GSL Basin Planner, Division of Water Resources

Jake Serago, Water Resources Engineer, Division of Water Resources

10:00 – 10:30 Break/Posters

10:30 – The Bear River Commission

Jody Williams, Senior Counsel, Holland & Hart; Federal Commissioner and Chair of the Bear River Commission

10:55 – Water Distribution and Accountability

Teresa Wilhelmsen, State Engineer, Utah Division of Water Rights

11:20 – Utah Water Law: A 5-Year Look Back To Inform Future Action 

Emily Lewis, ClydeSnow, Attorneys At Law

11:45 – A Case for Utah Agriculture & How the Agricultural Water Optimization Program is Helping

Hannah Freeze, Program Mgr. Agricultural Water Optimization Program, Utah Department of Agriculture and Food

12:10 – 1:10  Lunch/Posters

Go With the Flow

1:15 – Seasonal and Split Seasonal Leasing—What Does it Mean? How Does it Work? What Could it Yield?

Jim Bowcutt , Dir. Conservation Division, Utah Department of Agriculture and Food

1:40 – Role of the Great Salt Lake Watershed Enhancement Trust in the Future of the Lake and its Wetlands

Marcelle Shoop, Executive Director, Great Salt Lake Watershed Enhancement Trust

2:05 – Protect and Restore: GSLWET Wetland Funding

Adam Wickline, Senior Project Manager, Great Salt Lake Watershed Enhancement Trust              

2:30 – Investigating Groundwater Inflows to Great Salt Lake

Hugh Hurlow, Groundwater and Wetlands Program, Utah Geological Survey - facilitator

Sam Carter, MS in Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah

Eben Adomako-Mensah, MS in Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah

3:15 – 3:45 Break   

3:45 – Effluent Odyssey: Navigating Wastewater Reuse in the GSL Basin

Blake Bingham, Deputy State Engineer, Utah Division of Water Rights

4:10 – Wastewater Reuse in the Great Salt Lake Basin (When is Recycling Not Necessarily Good?)

Leland Myers, Wasatch Front Water Quality Council

4:35 – Reuse and the Role of the Division of Water Quality

John Mackey, Director, Division of Water Quality

5:00 – A Comprehensive Look at Cloud Seeding in Utah

Jonathan Jennings, Meteorologist, Utah Division of Water Resources

5:25 – Adjourn

Thursday May 9th

2024 Great Salt Lake Issues Forum

Thursday, May 9th, Schedule, Granite Ballroom

7:15 am – Registration and Continental Breakfast

The Great Salt Lake Ecosystem: To Preserve and Protect in Perpetuity

8:00 – Welcome

8:10 – Keynote: A Great Salt Lake Conservation Story: Capturing Opportunities from Unexpected Consequences: An Historical Perspective

Don Paul, Wildlife Biologist

8:35 – Protection Successes and Challenges at Mono Lake

Geoff McQuilkin, Mono Lake Committee

9:00 – Lessons from the Salton Sea

Michael Cohen, Pacific Institute

9:25 – Values in the Brine: Utahns’ Attitudes and Values on Great Salt Lake

Anna McEntire, Janice Quinney Lawson Institute for Land, Water, and Air, Utah State University

10:00 – 10:30 Break/Posters

Ecological Values and Viability

10:30 – Modeling Great Salt Lake Nitrogen Cycling

Gary Belovsky, University of Notre Dame

10:55 – Great Salt Lake Artemia: A Crucial Live Food for Farm-raised Shrimp and Fish Worldwide as well as an Exemplary Model of Sustainable Production

Patrick Sorgeloos, Ghent University

11:20 – The Importance of Sustainable Harvest Management and Salinity Management of Great Salt Lake: An Industry Perspective 

Thomas Bosteels, Great Salt Lake Brine Shrimp Cooperative, Inc.

11:45 – 12:00  2024 Doyle W. Stephens Scholarship Award Presentation

12:00 – 1:00  Lunch/Posters

1:05 – A Very Salty Journey

Ben Stireman, Deputy Director, Utah Division of Forestry, Fire & State Lands

Christine Rumsey, U.S. Geological Survey, Utah Water Science Center

1:45 – On the Fly: The Unsung Insects Feeding Great Salt Lake Birds

Bonnie Baxter, Great Salt Lake Institute, Westminster University - facilitator

David  B. Herbst, Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory, Mammoth, CA

Carly Biedul, Great Salt Lake Institute, Westminster University

Heidi Hoven, Gillmor Sanctuary, National Audubon Society

Amanda Barth, Rare Insect Conservation Coordinator, Utah State University                   

2:45 – Developing a New Topographic Baseline for Great Salt Lake: Newly Assimilated Topobathymetric Dataset Incorporates New and Old Data to Calculate Elevation-Area-Volume Relationships

Casey Root, U.S. Geological Survey, Utah Water Science Center

3:10 – Establishing a Dust Forum for Great Salt Lake

Tim Davis, Deputy Great Salt Lake Commissioner

3:15 –The Dust Never Seems to Settle for Long These Days: What We Talk About When We Talk About Dust: Shared Goals, Lessons Learned, and Opportunities for Future Work

Molly Blakowski, U.S. Geological Survey, Utah Water Science Center – facilitator

Kevin Perry, Dept. of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Utah

Sara Grineski, Professor of Sociology, University of Utah

Phill Kiddoo, Great Basin AQ +Pollution Control District             

Dr. Ray Ward, Family Physician, Utah House of Representative, District 19

4:20 – A Climatology of Dust Events Impacting Snow Melt at the Atwater Study Plot in Alta, UT                                                                                                                                         

Nancy Sohlberg, 2023 Doyle W. Stephens Scholarship Recipient, University of Utah

4:45 – GSL Business Council                                                                                                                        

Tim Hawkes, Great Salt Lake Brine Shrimp Cooperative, Inc.

5:30 – 7:00 Poster Session Reception (Douglas Ballroom)